Stained Glass Tour
  - Joseph the Patriarch
  - St. Therese of Liseux
  - St. Claire of Assisi
  - St. Francis of Assisi
  - St. Paul of Tarsus
  - Bl. Pedro Calungsod
  - St. Maria Goretti
  - Bl. Miguel Pro
  - St. Maximilian Kolbe
  - St. Gianna Molla
  - Bl. Teresa of Calcutta
  - Ven. John Paul II, Pope
  - St. John Vianney
  - Christ the King with St. Michael
the Archangel
 - Ven. Fr. Michael McGivney

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Valley Rose Designer Glass

The stained glass in the main section of St. Joseph's Church that is featured in this section was designed and created by parishioner Mary Mullins and all images are subject to copyright, 2007-2010, Valley Rose Designer Glass.  Descriptive text copyright Mary Mullins, 2007-2010.
You may contact them by calling (209) 238-3236.

Christ the King

STAINED GLASS TOUR
Blessed Miguel Pro

January 1891-November 1927

God blessed Fr. Miguel Pro with a delightful, good-natured personality that was both deeply spiritual and joyfully playful!  These are attributes he had from his earliest years and they continued to grow throughout his life.  He loved to entertain by playing songs on his guitar and he loved to draw pictures and cartoons.  One of his friends, Fr. Pulido said that Fr. Miguel Pro had “an exquisite wit, never coarse, always sparkling” and he could express his love for God, spend many hours before the Blessed Sacrament in prayer and talk about spiritual matters without being boring or self-righteous.  

Miguel was born on January 13, 1891 in the mining town of Guadalupe, Zacatecas, Mexico. He was the third of eleven children.  Once when he was still a little boy, he had a fall that knocked him unconscious.  His frightened parents hovered over him as he slowly opened his eyes but his first words were not “Mama” or “Papa” but “cocol”—special Mexican bread eaten with jam!  From then on, Miguel had the nickname, Cocol, a name that he would use in later life, when, as a priest he was forced to travel in disguise and minister to his flock in secret.

Miguel’s parents were devout Catholics, fostering faith and virtue in their children.  Two of his sisters became nuns and their commitment both inspired and reinforced Miguel in his own desire to give himself to God as a priest.  In 1911, when he was 20 years old, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Mexico. But, 1911 was also the beginning of a tumultuous crossroads Mexico’s politics when years of injustice and political corruption boiled over and the Mexican Revolution began.  These were bloody, dangerous times with many factions at war with each other and many innocent people caught in the middle.  For Roman Catholics, life took on even greater suffering. By 1914, anti-Catholic sentiment on the part of those in power grew to the point that the seminaries and schools were forced to close and religious orders fled the country.  Miguel along with other Jesuit novices came to Los Gatos, here in California. Later his superiors sent him to study in Granada, Spain. Before his ordination, he also taught for the Jesuits in Nicaragua. Eventually, the order sent Miguel to Enghien, Belgium to study more about Catholic labor movements. Miguel’s own childhood in the mining town of Guadalupe, Zacatecas and his love for the mining people made him a natural choice for this special course.

Miguel’s cheerful nature masked the fact that he was often in pain, suffering from chronic stomach ulcers.  His condition worsened when he was in Belgium, but thankfully, he still managed to complete his course of study and on August 31, 1925 he was ordained a priest.  Later he wrote:

        “How can I explain to you the sweet grace of the Holy Spirit which invades my poor miner’s soul with such heavenly joys? I could not keep back the tears on the day of my ordination, above all at the moment when I pronounce, together with the bishop, with words of the consecration. After the ceremony, the new priests gave their first blessing to their parents. I went to my room, laid out all the photographs of my family on the table, and then blessed them from my heart.”

After ordination, Fr. Pro worked with the miners in Belgium.  Even though many were attracted to the anti-religion concepts of communism and socialism, he was accepted by them and was able to minister to them.  But his health continued to worsen so much so that in 1926, the Jesuits, not fully understanding the persecution of Catholics in Mexico, sent Fr. Pro home to be nearer his family.

But for now, to better understand the times that Blessed Miguel Pro lived in, we need to look again at the Revolution in Mexico.  By 1917, even though fighting had not ceased, the government signed a new constitution into law.  But this document put the Catholic Church on a direct collision course with those in power.  There were five particular articles in the new constitution whose sole purpose was the destruction of the Church and these articles were vigorously enforced by President Plutarco Calles and his comrade and former President General Alvaro Obregon.   

The articles banned all religious instruction from schools, all monastic orders were banned, people were no longer allowed any form of worship outside of a church building, the Church’s ownership of property was restricted or in some cases taken over by the state, priests and religious were stripped of their right to vote, were forbidden to make comments on public affairs and they were forbidden to wear their clerical clothes in public. Despite the persecution, the Church did not want to resort to violence, so from 1919 to 1926, they tried to comply with the laws under ever growing oppression.   By 1926, the persecution of the Church reached the breaking point.  The Church had been effectively forced underground in some states of Mexico. Priests went into hiding and had to celebrate Mass in deserted places and minister the sacraments in secret. If they were discovered, some were imprisoned, but many were shot or beheaded right in front of their congregations in an effort to terrorize the remaining Catholic faithful.

A group of 50 Mexican peasants formed an army they called Cristeros to fight for the rights of Catholics to practice their faith. The movement grew to over 50,000 from all economic classes in Mexico. Their rally cry was “Viva Cristo Rey!”  (Long Live Christ the King).   This was the atmosphere in Mexico that Fr. Pro faced when he returned in July 1926.

Blessed Miguel Pro’s creative nature and good humor were valuable assets as he sought to bring Christ to souls through the underground ministry.  He developed many different disguises to help him minister to his flock without being detected by the police.  Sometimes he dressed as a beggar; other times a taxi driver, sometimes an elegant gentleman and other times a businessman.  Whatever he needed to do, Fr. Pro did it to serve the faithful. He celebrated Masses in secret and administered the Sacraments in small groups.  He brought the people joy, hope and when he could, financial assistance.  He wrote letters to the secret communities signing them with his nickname, Cocol.   Although he was often smiling, he understood suffering. He had a very tender devotion to Our Blessed Mother, particularly under her title of Our Lady of Sorrows.  In March 1927 he wrote the following prayer to her:

    "Let me live my life at your side, my Mother, and be the companion of your
bitter solitude and your profound pain. Let my soul feel your eyes sad weeping
and the abandonment of your heart."

Later that year, former President Obregon was slightly wounded in a car bombing.  It proved to be just the excuse the police and President Calles needed to arrest Fr. Pro and his brothers Humberto, also a priest, and Roberto, who was later released.  The car used in the attack had belonged to one of the brothers sometime in the past.  Those involved in the bombing confessed that the Pro brothers were not involved, but the authorities turned a deaf ear to this fact. They knew Fr. Pro was an underground priest and they wanted him dead. On November 13, 1927 Fr. Pro and his brother along with two others were sentenced to death before a firing squad. They were never allowed legal counsel and they never even had a trial!  

In the meantime, President Calles laid out plans to have reporters and photographers witness the execution.  He was sure that Fr. Pro would crumble in fear before the firing squad and that his fear would dishearten the Cristeros whose battles against the government forces were having an impact.  He could not have been more wrong.  Ten days later, on November 23rd, before his execution, Fr. Pro spoke these words:
        I am ready to give my life for souls, but I want nothing for myself.
        All that I want is to lead them to God.  If I kept anything for myself,
        I should be a thief, infamous; I should no longer be a priest.

When he was lead out to be shot, Fr. Pro blessed the soldiers, knelt down to pray for a short time, and then, refusing the blindfold, he proclaimed his innocence, forgave his enemies and with a Rosary in one hand and a crucifix in the other, he opened his arms as Jesus did on the cross and cried out “Viva Cristo Rey!”  Fr. Pro was only 36 years old.
The next day, the papers were filled with graphic photos of his death, but the outrage over the murder of this innocent, holy priest only solidified resistance to the persecutions.  On September 25, 1988, Pope John Paul beatified Fr. Miguel Pro.

In this window...

    Blessed Miguel has just started to remove his businessman’s disguise.  The suit jacket and tie are draped over his left arm, and we see his true identity as a Catholic priest.  His stole, a sign of his priestly ministry is around his shoulders. The stole is edged in green and emblazoned on the left side with a red Chi-Ro and golden crown to symbolize Christ the King.  The white, green and red are the colors of the Mexican flag and are here to honor to people of Mexico.

Blessed Miguel welcomes us with a Crucifix in his right hand. He holds the Rosary in his left hand and his breviary is tucked under his arm. He is standing in a field, with a fence behind him.  The field and fence represent both the scene of his execution and the fact that he often had to celebrate Holy Mass in fields and other deserted, secret places.
At his feet are seven Alcatraz lilies.  The lilies, one of Mexico’s national flowers, symbolize Our Blessed Mother’s Seven Sorrows and Blessed Miguel’s tender devotion to her under that title. The ground beneath his feet is tinged with warm, earthy tones. This illustrates that the soil of Mexico is blessed with the blood of many martyrs. Because the windows are long and narrow, Blessed Miguel’s arms are not outstretched as on the day of his execution, but he holds the Cross and the Rosary before us, inviting us to love Our Blessed Mother and follow her son, Christ the King.

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